Freedom to Stay, Freedom to Move, Freedom to Return, Freedom to Resist

Freedom to Stay, Freedom to Move, Freedom to Return, Freedom to Resist

AROC and Third World Resistance object to the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement to allow provisions of Trump’s executive order banning Muslims and refugees to go into effect. We demand and assert the Freedom to Stay, Freedom to Move, Freedom to Return, and Freedom to Resist for Arabs and Muslims targeted by this ban, and for all oppressed communities threatened by the Trump administration.

FREEDOM TO STAY

We uphold migrants’ rights. We recognize that while Arabs and Muslims are the majority of those targeted by this ban as well as the intended scapegoats for it, there are other communities including ethnic, racial, and religious groups originating from the targeted countries that will be impacted. When we demand that Arabs and Muslims have the Freedom to Stay, that is also an assertion of solidarity with all immigrants regardless of documentation or place of origin. We support Indigenous struggle. The Trump administration has doubled-down on the U.S.’s program of exploiting indigenous lands and repressing indigenous movements, extending the settler-colonialism on which this country was founded. We stand with indigenous communities everywhere struggling for their Freedom to Stay on their land. We oppose gentrification. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the ravages of the displacement caused by gentrification are sharply felt. We fight for our Freedom to Stay in our homes and communities, and against the displacement of oppressed people everywhere.

FREEDOM TO MOVE

No Ban, No Wall. We join with millions of people who are demanding No Ban, No Wall. We believe that everyone should have the Freedom to Move without the threats of violence generated by borders and racist, xenophobic immigration policies. We support comprehensive sanctuary. People fleeing wars in the Arab World and those seeking escape from U.S. backed political, military, and economic policies that have devastated Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa should be provided refuge. Within the U.S. we support the Freedom to Move of all communities targeted for repression by all levels of law enforcement, including border patrol. We oppose xenophobia in all its forms. Trump’s executive order exists within a heightened context of Islamophobia, white nationalism, zionism, and fascism that restricts Arabs, Muslims, and other ethnic and religious groups’ movement for “security” reasons. We fight for the Freedom to Move within the U.S., and for those facing occupation, apartheid, and settler-colonialism everywhere.

FREEDOM TO RETURN

We Move to End Imperialism. Similarly to the imperialist adventures the U.S. has taken up across Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa, the six Muslim majority countries listed in this ban have all been targeted by the U.S. through bombing, military intervention, and sanctions, resulting in forced migration and people becoming refugees. We stand against imperialism and for people’s Freedom to Return to their lives and homes with dignity. We Resist State Repression. Our struggle against bans and immigrant detention is embedded within the struggle against the repressive systems of surveillance, policing, sentencing, and imprisonment that target working class and communities of color. We fight for imprisoned and detained people to have the Freedom to Return to their families and communities. We Support Refugees’ Right of Return. As Third World people from the Americas, Asia, and Africa, we fight for oppressed people everywhere to be able to travel, visit, and return to their homelands. We fight for their right and Freedom to Return.

FREEDOM TO RESIST

We stand in solidarity with all those impacted by imperialism, state violence, displacement and racial profiling. We recognize that not a single judge dissented from the unsigned Supreme Court Ruling with some willing to go farther in implementing the ban in full. The stakes are high for our communities. We commit to resist abusive and racist laws at every level.